Everything Dan Lanning said after Oregon's 45-30 win over UCLA
Dan Lanning said he had a feeling when he arrived to the set of ESPN’s College GameDay early Saturday morning that it was going to be a good day for the Oregon Ducks.
Lanning was right.
The 10th-ranked Ducks moved to 4-0 in Pac-12 play this season and picked up their sixth straight win overall with a 45-30 beatdown of No. 9 UCLA. Oregon took over sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 with the victory.
Lanning met with reporters after the discuss the win, Bo Nix’s play, Oregon’s offensive line, and a bunch more. Here’s everything he said, with video of the press conference below:
Opening statement
“Wow. I had a pretty good feeling this was going to be an awesome day the minute I stepped out on The Quad right around 6 a.m. this morning and that place was packed. Our fans brought it from 4 a.m. or even 1 a.m. last night all the way to the very end of that game and they were absolutely a difference for us. A complete team win. We changed the game in special teams and were able to have some big momentum plays both offensively and defensively. When they’re scoring field goals and we’re trading them for touchdowns, that’s going to be a recipe for success. Certainly a lot of things we can get better at. I don’t think anybody on our team is satisfied and that’s what gives this team a chance to be hungry and great. Really excited about moving forward to the next game, we’re going to enjoy this one though.”
On what he learned about his team this week
“The buy-in. You always want buy-in as a coach. At halftime, we sat there and talked about how the most physical team is going to win this game. You look at the brand of football we played going into the half and then coming out in the third quarter, we said we’re going to run the ball and be more physical. We did that in the third. There was nobody moping on the sideline because we’re not throwing the ball 15 times, right? They did what was necessary to win. When you have a team that has buy-in, that believes in what they’re doing, and that love’s the guys in the room, that’s when you have a chance to be really successful.”
On the onside kick
“I think some of you guys might have been at practice earlier this week and I told you ‘Don’t tell anybody or I’ll never let you come to practice again,’ right, you guys saw us practicing that and appreciate that you guys kept your lips sealed. We knew that was something that we wanted to do and we wanted to practice it in pressure situations throughout the week. We had a couple of pressure kicks that we did early on. It was there, we saw it after the first kickoff and we felt like that’s the look we want. The second kick-off we thought it was there as well. The third one was actually the worst look we had and we still felt really confident. It looked like there was some weather coming in and we felt like if there was a chance to steal a possession, it would be before the weather hit. It turned out some weather came, but we knew in that game, especially once we received the kick, that we wanted to look to get an extra possession if we can because we weren’t going to get the ball (after) half.”
On Bo Nix
“I don’t think anyone can sit here and watch football right now and watch our quarterback play and tell me he’s not an elite quarterback. This guy’s playing at an extremely high level. He makes great decisions for our team. You can’t watch a football game right now and say that guy’s not elite. He’s an elite competitor, he’s an elite leader, he has phenomenal character, he’s throwing the ball really well, and he’s making great decisions. He’s humble and I think everybody on our team is excited about his success.”
On the big offensive showing
“For us, the standard is the standard. It really doesn’t matter who we play. You could ask those guys in the locker room before the game started, ‘Who are we playing?’ (They’d say) we’re playing Oregon. Every week we’re competing against ourselves. I think that’s a really good football team that we just went against, but the standard doesn’t change based on the team you play. Our offense has been operating at a really high level and I think that’s credit to our offensive coaches and also a credit to our players and the work they put in during the week.”
On the rhythm Oregon has created since Week 1
“Growth mindset. Our players have a growth mindset. They know every single week that there’s an opportunity to get better. Just because we won this game, doesn’t mean we’re not looking for an opportunity to improve. On Monday, people that are in this room frequently know that I’m going to say we’re gonna go to the doctor, we’re gonna figure out what we can get better at, and go take our medicine and improve. Our team has done that week in and week out.”
On the 15-play touchdown drive in the third
“That’s an explosive offense that we just played. They’re really hard to defend, they’re obviously really well-coached. The best way you can defend them is to keep them off the field. We wanted to have our offense on the field and their offense off the field. That’s a great example of our offense doing that, utilizing the clock, being able to take advantage of time of possession, and work the ball down the field.”
On Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“Ultimately we just tried to eliminate a lot of the one-on-one opportunities. We wanted to try and have vision to be able to close and finish on him. Our guys bought into that plan, did a really good job of executing when we did have a chance. I don’t know if we had a sack in this game, but we did keep him contained. He’s a really talented player and a tough guy to stop. It really wasn’t about statistics for us as much as it was keeping him corralled.”
On third-down defense and forcing field goals
“We’re better but we’re not where we want to be at. We’ve got to continue to improve and continue to grow there, and I think we will. When you’re trading touchdowns for field goals, that’s a recipe for success. Eventually, we want to be able to turn those into stops. They had some fourth downs that I wish we could’ve gotten off the field. At the same time, they weren’t able to score quick, and when you’re not able to score quick with that kind of deficit, it’s going to be hard for them to get back into the game.”
On the offensive line
“I’ll have to go back and watch the film, but I think it’s hard to say they’re not operating really well together. It’s a really cohesive unit. Credit to our offensive staff and the job they’ve done there and also credit to those guys. We have some guys that are senior leaders on that group that are really like coaches on the field. They’re able to communicate what looks they see every time they come (off the field). If you guys watched Alex Forsyth work when no one else is working, you’d understand why that offensive line is like it is. He’s out there practicing snapping the ball before practice. He’s going through calls. We’re at chapel today and Alex Forsyth is carrying the football around with him in chapel. I know the Lord appreciates that and so do the Ducks. Those guys work really hard and hard work pays off.”
On the secondary
“One of our goals coming into this game was to make sure we had more explosive plays than they had. If you want to do that, you have to eliminate explosive plays downfield. Coach (Chip) Kelly does such a good job of lulling you to sleep and then challenging your eyes. We wanted to make sure we didn’t have a lot of eye violations in this game and our guys did a good job of that.”
On what it means to beat Chip Kelly
“I have a lot of respect and admiration for Coach Kelly. We got the W today, but that’s a credit to our players, that’s a credit to our staff, that’s not me.”
On offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham’s impact
“He’s done a great job. Obviously he’s a guy that I’ve been able to see in the profession for a long time. It wasn’t that long ago that Kenny Dillingham was a high school coach at Chaparral High School, sitting in the corner of staff meetings every single day not saying a word. He’s grown so much as a coach and developed over time, and obviously he’s doing a great job of leading our team, our offense, and those coaches. I think he’d be the first one to give credit to our quarterback who’s playing at a really high level and players around him that are doing a really good job. Excited to see him have the success he’s had.”
On whether the second fourth-down try was automatic after picking up the first
“We knew we were going for it (on the second one). We knew. We’re talking about before it gets to fourth-and-1. We were kind of already on the same page. The first one wasn’t for sure though, for what it’s worth. The second one was.”
On Troy Franklin
“You like guys that catch the ball. Troy catches the ball. He has a big catch radius and a lot of those catches you see out there on the game field are the same ones you see in practice. Troy’s doing a great job, he’s grown up a ton as a player, and I’m looking forward to watching him grow and continue to develop. I know we’re just scratching the surface for what he can be.”
On how it feels for him personally to have the Ducks on the right track early in his tenure
“I’m excited for our players to have success. I’m excited for our coaches to have success. I’m excited for our university and for the people that support this university so much to see that success. I don’t want to get in the way of that. I’m really thrilled to see our guys continue to grow. What I want is at the end of the season for us to be playing our best football. We’re still not there, but we’re getting better every week and that’s the part that excites me.”
On Bo Nix’s ability to extend plays
“That happened on two different plays. The first one, there was an opportunity to take the ball down the field and it didn’t really develop. That was a great example of good decision-making at quarterback. If it’s not there, take your checkdown. Bo’s been such a threat with his legs that when he starts to simulate like he might run, now that checkdown becomes a real open target. The second one, Bucky was on a wheel route out of the backfield and was uncovered. Bo got his eyes there and got it to a guy who was uncovered and you’re going to have success with plays like that.”
On Bo Nix’s growth
“There’s not something that he’s doing now that he wasn’t doing before, I just think he’s in really good sync and really good rhythm. There are some moments in this game where Bo said, ‘Hey coach, are you guys good with this? Are you comfortable with this call?’ Absolutely. You want your quarterback to feel like he can be the play-caller at times. He’s making great decisions with the ball, he’s not putting the ball in jeopardy. He’s playing really smart football, unselfish football. That’s going to lead to opportunities for us to win. If he continues to do that I think we’ll continue to see success.”
On the 15-play drive
“It becomes disheartening to your opponent whenever you feel like you can’t impact the game because you can’t get on the field. It’s a tough feeling when you’re not able to stop somebody. So for us to have a 15-play drive and use the clock, it’s pretty exciting to know that you can have that much control. I feel like our players were operating with control and our coaching staff did a great job of executing.”